REEVES’ PHEASANT, 
Phasianus reevesii. 
Plate XXXIII. 
A living male of this magnificent Pheasant was brought to England as long ago as 1831, having been 
presented to the Society by Mr. John Beeves, F.Z.S., then of Canton, after whom the species had been 
previously named by Messrs. Hardwicke and Gray. Specimens were again successfully transmitted to the 
Society by Mr. Reeves in 1838, and bred in the Gardens without difficulty, although the species was subsequently 
lost from the number of individuals being insufficient to allow for casualties. During the past few years 
great efforts have been made to re-introduce this ornamental bird to our Aviaries, and at present there seems 
to be every prospect of a successful result. The Zoological Society’s Gardens now contain a fine pair of 
this Pheasant, imported into England along with others of the same species in the course of the year 1867 
by Mr. John J. Stone, F.Z.S., which show every symptom of being likely to do well. 
The Reeves’ Pheasant is an inhabitant of Northern China. Dr. Lamprey, who made great exertions to 
send this bird alive to the Society in 1862, though these unfortunately were not successful, purchased his 
specimens in the market of Tient-sin, the port of Pekin, stating that he believed them to have been obtained 
from the Tung-lin or eastern burial-place of the Emperors, north of Pekin. It appears, however, to be the 
custom to place all kinds of game in the extensively enclosed grounds of the Imperial burial-places, so that 
this may not be their natural locality. That this is the case, would also appear from some notes, recently 
communicated to the Zoological Society, concerning the Pheasants met with in the neighbourhood of Pekin, 
by Mr. Dudley E. Saurin, lately attached to Her Majesty’s Legation in that capital. Mr. Saurin speaks of 
this bird as follows:— 
“The Reeves’ Pheasant (Ph. reevesii), called by the Chinese “Chi-chi,” is seen very rarely in the Pekin 
Market. For a long time I failed to discover from what quarter they came, as some specimens had been 
obtained at Tient-sing, and people pretended they had been brought from Shantung. Last winter, however, 
I ascertained that they came from the Tung-lin, and I have reason to suppose that they are to be found nowhere 
else in the province of Chi-li. About twenty birds were brought down alive last winter. They are never 
brought in frozen or by the Mongols. Their flesh is very delicious, and superior, to my taste, to that of any 
other pheasant.” 
Mr. Swinhoe informs me that this Pheasant is stated by the Chinese to be found wild in the Tailioo 
district, Central China, on the north side of the Yang-tze-Kiang. That this is true is rendered more probable 
by the fact that Mr. Stone’s birds, now in the Society’s Gardens, were received from Hankow, which is high 
up the Yang-tze-Kiang. 
